I enjoy the quirky aspects of life. I guess that’s why stumbling upon Jessica Hagy’s quirky perspective on Forbes.com made my day. Jessica is an artist and writer, best known for her award-winning blog, Indexed (don’t worry, I’d never heard of it either). Her writing has mastered the art of brevity, accentuated with quirky line drawings to illustrate her points. There are lessons in communication, which we could pass on to our children, right there. But the particular article that caught my attention is about being more interesting – or as she puts it, “how to be interesting (in 10 stupid-simple steps)”. She encourages her readers to explore – “explore ideas, places and opinions. The inside of the echo chamber is where all the boring people hang out”. But Jessica is not endorsing a purely selfish path to self-improvement. We should share what we discover with others. And we should do something – anything – instead of sitting around and complaining. I like that one. We live in an age where it’s really easy to bitch and moan about anything and everything without lifting a finger to make a difference. It helps to have a cause, of course. Jessica’s point is that we need to be passionate about something in life, but she warns against being arrogant. All of this requires a certain amount of courage, leaving our comfort zones and going against the flow. There are no revolutionary ideas in the article, but they are definitely worth emphasising to our children as they grow up. Being unafraid to try new things and experience as much of life as possible seems to me like a really good way to live.

Read How to be more interesting